Jay Dihenkar is a Staff Engineer at Blinkit. He joined us in December 2020 and has helped different teams manage and streamline their build and release processes. He is currently working towards continuously improving the reliability, scalability, observability, developer productivity, and other such aspects of a software system critical for ensuring that the system can meet the needs of its users and stakeholders over time.
Tell us something about yourself and your journey in Blinkit so far.
I started out as an engineer on the Release Engineering team, working on goals of Software Quality/Stability and streamlining release processes (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment or CI/CD). I help make an impact by improving developer productivity while safeguarding the production ecosystem against failures. I later transitioned into the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team, where we focused on improving the reliability and resilience of our systems. Being a site-reliability engineer requires one to develop a deep understanding of how the various components of a system work together and how to optimise them. Overall my journey in Blinkit is one of continuous learning and improvement.
If you were to describe your experience as a Blinker in one word, what would that be?'
Growth. Being here is all about continuous learning in a fast-paced environment.
What does a typical day at work look like for you?
On a typical day, I work on the following domains (though not everything on a single day!):
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debugging complex problems sprung out of production incidents,
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putting automation in places where required,
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setting up monitoring and alerting, as well as responding to alerts,
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release engineering and developer productivity (CI/CD),
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System Infrastructure Cost,
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Working toward implementing Application Reliability Patterns
and so on…
What are the biggest challenges facing quick commerce today?
I believe the “Logistics infrastructure” required to make the quick and efficient delivery of products possible and doing it at scale is one of the more significant problems in q-commerce today. Other problems like Talent Shortage and Value Conciousnesses deserve honourable mentions in the bucket of challenges to be addressed.
What principle do you always adhere to as a techie when solving a problem statement?
Sticking to the basics here — RCA-ing the root cause (5 WHYs), break down the problem, implementation-test-iterate.
Who do you seek inspiration from on an everyday basis?
I seek a lot of motivation by following the work of colleagues and Open Source Community contributors.
What do you love the most about your colleagues?
I admire my colleagues for their technical expertise, problem-solving with attention to detail, positive attitude toward solving problems (and life in general), and complete willingness to learn.
What would be your advice to an engineer hoping to join Blinkit soon?
Be prepared to embark on the journey of fast-paced learning while working with some of the best talents in the industry and making impactful contributions to crucial cutting-edge q-commerce projects at Blinkit.
On the technology side, during your time here, what has been the single most remarkable change you’ve witnessed in the organisation?
A remarkable change was when we transitioned to “quick-commerce,” where we had to reboot our mindset from delivering items “the next day” to delivering in minutes. This also brought various innovations in all aspects of our SDLC, from shipping features to maintaining reliability. We revamped our reliability stack, rewrote much of our code, etc. It has been quite a ride since we entered the instant delivery space.
How do you strike a work-life balance?
I find comfort in meditating and spending time with friends and family while not working.
Jay is a Staff Engineer at Blinkit. You can follow him on Linkedin.
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